Summer lovin...had me a blast!

This summer we did just as the song says.. I was full of "lovin' summer" and we definitely "had a blast". Holy cow! I can't believe summer has come and gone. By far 2011 has been one of my very favorite years thus far. The end of last year ended up with me being laid off and a future of uncertainty, but this year proved to me that everything will always work out! I had a few interesting "new job" experiences, but ultimately I ended up doing just what I wanted to be doing at an awesome office! The new job started my summer with nerves and excitement, but our first trip of the hot, sunny season started off with a bang in good old Moab! 


We hiked our butts off, and probably sweated to death too, but it was totally worth it for two full days of hiking and camping!! Luke and Mandy joined us on our trip and it couldn't have been a better way to start our summer! They are so much fun!

Our awesome campsite right by the river. This was the second night....our first night we got to Moab too late in the day to get a non-smelly site so we were left to camp by the outhouse. Definitely not the ideal situation! Haha first thing the next morning we picked up our tents and hiked them down the river about 5 spots. Much better! :)

We played a few cards and ate, and ate and ate some more...Of course with Luke we laughed our guts out too! He is one funny guy. :)

The second day we decided to head over to Canyonlands. We hiked to Mesa Arch and this was our view! It is so beautiful there. I absolutely love to hike and when you get a view like this one, it makes all the work worth it!

Of course I didn't upload all of my cool Arches pictures...I have a whole summer to blog about people! BUT, I love this arch! I believe it is called Double Arch. Just one of the many we hiked to.

 Landscape Arch....it's as long as a football field and so thin! I can't believe how huge it is in person. It will be sad when this one goes. After seeing this arch we headed on the LONG trail for the "loop". Lets just say we under estimated the length of this hike. Good thing we packed food and water cause when we were done with the hike we were completely out of water and only had a few granola bars left! Haha If I remember right the round trip was 7 miles. That's not bad, but I don't think we realized it would take us that long. Lesson learned. :)

P.S. You should have seen how packed my car was! It was hilarious! 4 people's camping gear, cooler, all of our hiking gear, pillows plus US made for one squishy ride.... but it was totally worth it! :)

On our hike to see the Delicate Arch. By far the coolest one in the park! I'm pretty sure quite a few of you have this one on your license plate! ;)

Here she is! Oh! and us....see the specs at the bottom. ;) I absolutely LOVE the Arches and Moab. If you haven't been there you should go. I guess if you hate hiking....don't, but just know you are missing out! I have so many pictures but I can't post them all. We had a blast with Luke and Mandy and hope we get to go again with them! Maybe next summer!

Summer Lovin' Part II  *Lake Powell*

You know us and our "second home". Yeah, I wish! Man, if that could be my summer home I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat! We headed there with our buds Rob and Danell. It ended up just being the four of us, but it made for more fun memories!

K People, do you see why I LOVE this place???? How gorgeous is this?! A perfect summer night in my opinion.

Haha, Kind of a funny picture with Captain Rob in the background but I still think it's cute. Us, doing what we love most....basking in the sun! :)

Brings back every fun memory I have of the last 5 summers......yep, just this one picture! Lake Powell, and Hawaii are probably heaven on earth, and lucky me.... I got to go to both this summer!! :)

We went for a boat ride through the canyons. This was through "Slit Canyon". It was awesome back there! We kept thinking we were going to have to turn around but we were able to go forever down the windy side canyons.We finally ended up turning around with about 3 other boats, but it was a fun leisurely trip!

We even spotted these little guys while we were there! My brother and his family had headed to Powell for the day and we met up with them. It was a fun addition to the trip.

Then, the usual Powell weather hit us in a matter of seconds. :-( If you go to Lake Powell often then you know what I'm talking about. Within a matter of seconds the wind picked up and our campsite looked like this. See the defeat in everyone's faces. Sad I know. We still had one more night to stay and were wondering if we should "wait it out". None of us really wanted to leave but if it was going to be terrible we thought there was no reason to stay. We ended up "waiting it out" for about 3 hours and FINALLY the wind and sandblasting let up. Our tent was upside down, full of sand, and so were our bags...our coolers were tipped over, our dry food was now fully coated in sand, and no shade tent made it. BUT, we stayed and the night was beautiful and so was the next day!!! We were so happy we stayed but we felt really bad that both of Rob and Danell's shade tents didn't make it. Those puppies aren't cheap! Even though it was a sickening 3 hours I kinda laugh every time I look at these pictures. :)

See, Rob and Danell even got to try this the next morning! I think it's pretty cool!

And Rob...showing off his mad skills. He can pick things up out of the water and wakeboard all at the same time....talent I tell ya, talent. ;)

We even got a little tubing in. See how nice of a day it was?! I'm so glad we stayed!!

Then a few weeks later....we went again! With these cutie pies!

Gorg! I know!

Man, Matt and I can't ever get a good pic without someone in the background. LOL I do love my brother though! He's always making us laugh and this picture was no exception. Love ya Justin!

We hit up Rainbow Bridge on this trip because we haven't been that far up the channel for a few years. The water is way high this year so we wanted to see how far we could boat into it. It was crazy how far we could go with the boat. It's hardly a hike anymore!

Then we hit up Powell yet again with some of our other friends! Matt and Natalie invited us to go with them
and of course we were more than excited to go! 

Matt..and Matt. They just call my Matt "Carter" so there isn't any confusion. :)

This #22 was floating away..Matt thought he was going to take it. Funny I know. 

Matt getting crazy on the wave runner. He could play on that thing all day long. We may have to invest in one...or a boat. :)

 I'm lame I know. Haha ;)

Headed home after another successful trip. Of course we were sad to leave though. We wait all year long for our Lake Powell trips. Nothing compares to a good weekend at Powell!

Summer Lovin' Part III  *Beaver Mountain*

Every year Matt's family heads to Beaver Mountain for their Carter Family reunion. This year was a small turn out since a lot of family was out of town. We still had a great time though! The weather was perfect!

 

 My cute niece Braylee. I just love her!

Luke, Mandy, Matt and I headed out to do some hiking. We hiked a way cool trail that started by Mount Delano, but it looped us back around closer to Puffer Lake. I can't remember what the trail was called, but it was such a pretty hike! It was so green up there with lots of water running and flowers along the way.

We saw this guy too.

Just us! We had a great time this year!

Summer Lovin' Part IV  *HAWAII*

Can you see the excitement?! This was actually in Oahu waiting for our short flight to Maui! So the "excitement" may look more like tired excitement! I finally got my Mom to Hawaii!!! Can you believe it? Because I can't!  I was so excited to show her everything I love about that place!

Look how cute she is! Seriously, my Mom is one of the funnest people around! She was so worried people would wonder why in the heck we'd take her on our vacation, but that thought never crossed my mind! I think Matt and I were even more excited about our trip knowing she was coming! This lady knows how to have fun!

See! Told ya! "WAY FUN" haha

Say Cheese!

First things first though...Coke run, even in Hawaii! "Cheers! We're in Hawaii".

At dinner our first night. We ate at Aloha Mixed Plate. It was so yummy! In fact, so good that we ate there for 3 more dinners while we were there! Yep, that good. :)

All ready for our long day on the road to Hana!

 Two of my most favorite people in the whole wide world!

 This was in the "Garden of Eden". It is a Botanical Garden on the way to Hana. It is absolutely gorgeous!

 Me and Mom being nerds...or posers whatever you want to call it. 

I love this picture! How cute is my Mom? and look at the road along the cliff! Yep, that's the road to Hana. It's windy, long....very long, can be rainy, and definitely not for those who get car sick, but we love it!!

More beach time!

 

We looked for shells, but mostly just found a lot of smooth rocks. I found some blue and green sea glass that now resides in a glass bottle in my house. :)

 

I wasn't prepared for this one! We had so much fun playing in the waves. The salt water isn't kind to your eyes, but I'm not complaining!

Just catchin' some rays! We actually didn't have a lot of sun on this trip. It was cloudy most of the time, but we made the most of the sunshine we did get! 

Then we had a "photoshoot" Haha! Really though, we wanted to have some cool beach pictures since we aren't sure if we will get to come here next year. My wonderful Mom ended up being the photographer and I think she did a great job. It was silly, but I'm glad we did it! It was fun, and made good memories.

Nothing shows summer fun like sandy flip flops!

Have I mentioned how much I love this guy??

If we look "over posed" in this one it's because we were mocking our wedding day. Well, I was kind of dreaming that this was where we got married, but it was funny. Maybe one day my whole family can go with us and we can have a "mock wedding". ;)

Lucky snapshot! This is one of my very favorites and we were totally messing around.

Aloha!

I have to say my most favorite pictures are the ones we weren't ready for. 

Now we can eat!! We were starving and can you tell by their faces it was definitely overdue for some serious chowing down?

We're full now and a little tired, but still having a blast!

Finally headed to the room after trying to find a place to eat so late at night. Word of advice, if you go to Maui don't try to find places to eat very late...it just won't happen.  

 Oh! We hit up a Luau while we were there too! Fire dancer on the left...Warrior dancer on the right. Rough spot to be in, I know. 

Black Sand beach along the way to Hana. This beach is awesome!!! The sand is actually little pebbles that are so smooth it doesn't hurt to walk in. Of course I brought a bottle of that home too. The water is more rough on this side of the island, but it is gorgeous against the black sand and the bright green plants and trees. This is one of my favorite places to visit!

 Not so cute feet...but a good view of the sand!

 On our way back from Hana. By this point we were tired of being in the car so we got out to get blown away! It was so windy it was crazy! We even had to chase Matt's hat down the road.

 Back to being Beach Bums! It's what we do best!

We searched for Crabs, Sea Turtles and any other living creature you could find in the rocks by the ocean. We succeeded! We saw so many things it was crazy! I think my Mom loved that. Who knew something so simple could be so entertaining. Seriously! 

Beach Bumin' it up again! I told you we took every chance we got! Haha I look at this picture and think...."now this is a vacation!"

Of course we took time out of our busy "beach bum" schedules to go for a helicopter ride!! This time it was kind of tricky with the crazy weather. Our first flight was rescheduled and we had to wait another day. When the next day came it was rainy still. We ended up going to another island close by. We saw so many waterfalls and rain forest it was crazy! My Mom loved every minute of that too!

Our final hour in Paradise. :( We look happy, but seriously we were so sad. I get so sick when we have to leave a vacation. I wonder to myself "will we get to come here again?" "How long until we get to go on a vacation again." However, I do love being home once we get there. I just don't want to take one moment for granted. I try to live in the moment as best as I can. I am extremely grateful for my life and the things I get to do. I am very grateful for my Mom and Matt. Without them I'd be lost in this world. I had the time of my life and am SO ecstatic I finally got to share my favorite place in the world with my Mama.  Until next time...ALOHA!